


baby I can read your phases like the moon

by krasati



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: 1x13 coda, M/M, Minor Michael Guerin/Alex Manes, Some angst, but it's a hopeful ending, of sorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 16:38:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18608404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krasati/pseuds/krasati
Summary: Post 1x13 and Alex attempts to live out his best life in leather jacket. Kyle meets him the middle.





	baby I can read your phases like the moon

**Author's Note:**

> Yay it's kylex! Because someone should appreciate Alex's post-jesse-in-coma fashion sense

Kyle hears about Max, then Maria  _and_  Michael, from Liz.

“Maria and Michael?” Kyle almost drops the stethoscope.

“Yea. They are into each other for awhile now,” Liz replies.

“I thought-“ Kyle stops himself. This is sensitive territory; he knows Alex, Liz and Maria are good friends, but he also knows that Alex shows parts of himself selectively to different people regardless of who they are.

She looks up and furrows her eyebrows, “You knew about Alex and Michael?”

“I work with them, especially Alex. Manes-Valenti stuff. Michael joined us for the Caulfield trip just a few days ago and I swear there was something between them - huh,” Kyle pauses, “the talk didn’t go well, I guess?”

“Mikey what have you done,” Liz groans. “Is Alex okay?”

“I haven’t met him yet. Now to think about it, he hasn’t replied my texts.”

Liz dials Alex’s number. Frowning, she calls him again. And again. And gives up. “He’s not picking up. Argh.”

“Maybe we should leave him alone for now. He hates talking about his personal life,”

“The last time he talked to me about his relationships was like ten years ago. And I didn’t even know it was about Michael until three days ago,”

“I’ll find him,” Kyle promises.

“I can come along-“

“I know you want to spend time with Max,” he interrupts gently, “and you should. Alex has changed a lot since high school, he’s not going to just open up especially about Michael.”

She sighs. “I want to be there for him,”

“It will be fine. I’ll check on him. Besides you have never lost out in a love triangle before,”

“What do you-oh,” Liz’s eyes widen, “Kyle, I-“

“It’s cool,” he says honestly, “I will always like you, Liz, but I am not in love with you anymore.”

She reaches for his hand. 

“You are right. Tell Alex I will be there for him? When he is ready,” she pleads.

Kyle squeezes her fingers. “Of course.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Alex Manes drinking in a non-Wild Pony bar?” Kyle has his arms at his waist like he is talking to a patient who has made some terrible life decision like stuffing a kinder egg into their ass. He is tired from driving around. He checked the cabin first, the bunker, then begged his mum to help find Alex’s car. 

“Cheers,” Alex picks up a non-empty shot glass, toasts it, and chugs the whiskey. Kyle can smell the alcohol on him. Alex’s tipsy, and resigned enough that he doesn’t bother questioning why Kyle is here.

Kyle stares suspiciously at the drink in Alex's hand. “How many did you have?”

“Not enough.”

Kyle sits next to him. “Liz and I are worried about you.”

“I’m fine.” Alex’s code for ‘I am not telling you shit’. Fair enough.

“I need to tell you something else though.”

“Shoot.”

Kyle winces. “Your dad was following me.”

At that, Alex stiffens. He straightens his back and takes a quick look around the bar.

“He isn’t following me now,” Kyle says, placing a hand on Alex’s shoulder, “I put him in a medically induced coma.”

Alex stares at him. Just as Kyle begins to feel unsettled under the weight of the stare, Alex giggles. Then he bursts into a loud, full bodied laughter that attracts curious looks from other patrons.

Kyle tightens his grip on Alex’s shoulder and tries to get Alex to look at him again. Alex brushes him off and waves one of the bartenders over.

“Get him the most expensive drink you have. It’s on me.”

Kyle worries his lips, and asks, “Are you okay?”

Alex retorts, “Of course I am.”

The drink comes. Kyle sips it. It’s warm and rich and sweet.

“This is good!”

Alex looks over curiously. “I’ve never tried.”

Then he uses Kyle’s hand as a handle, raises it to his lips and sips from the glass. The bottom of his lip grazes against Kyle’s finger. At this distance Kyle can see his eyelashes, the red flush of his cheeks.

Heat stirs and shoots straight down to his dick.  _Calm down_ , Kyle mentally scolds himself.

Alex licks the rim of the glass. He isn’t looking at Kyle though. He’s fluttering his eyelashes at the air, but at least three different sets of eyes are staring back at him, from interest to outright lust.

“You done showing off what you can do with your mouth?” Kyle says bluntly.

Alex sits back up, covers the slight embarrassment with a performative pout and a real threat hidden in heated gaze. “Listen, Valenti, I came here to be  _fucked_. You better not be cockblocking me. I’m not leaving until I get someone who isn’t Michael to touch my dick!”

He’s doing this on purpose, being crude to make Kyle uncomfortable and scare him away. But Kyle went to med school and med school students are so  desensitised to anatomical functions that Alex’s remarks are laughably entry-level. He placates, “Look, I completely understand the need to get laid, but do you want to talk?”

Alex narrows his eyes. “About what?”

“What happened,” Kyle presses. He is self aware enough to know that pushing for answers and not knowing when to stop is his worst trait, but in the time they spent together Alex has grown from annoyance to resignation and acceptance of Kyle’s worse habits. And egging tipsy Alex on occasionally leads to him adopting a botched valley girl accent and he gets more tactless and sarcastic than usual. It’s funny and Kyle loves that about him.

“I went to find Michael, and like I was honest. Pouring my heart out honest,”

“...Okay?”

“Then something alien came up, I guess it has to do with the weird lightning storm in Roswell. And Michael was like, okay meet me at the airstream tomorrow we’ll talk. So I went there and waited and he never showed. Next thing I know Maria and Michael are making out at the Wild Pony.”

 _What the hell._  “I will punch him in the dick,” Kyle growls.

“Nah. It’s my fault. I was too late. And also he has mind powers so you are gonna lose. And don’t you dare report this to Liz. She shouldn’t feel like she has to take a side. Besides, they didn’t do anything wrong and I do deserve this.”

Kyle wants to convince Alex that he’s wrong. But Alex will simply shut him down and the conversation ends. Kyle makes a mental note to himself to make things difficult for Michael in small and petty ways when he sees him around.

“What happened to your phone?” Kyle asks, carefully running through a list of less tenuous topics in his head.

“Uh. Dumped it somewhere. It kept ringing and I was trying to listen to my high school mixtape.”

“It was probably the hospital about your dad, dude.”

“Well. Guess it’s not important.”

“Flint picked up so he’s at the hospital now. He probably called your other brothers.”

Alex grimaces. “Argh. The Manes family is back in town. I’m gonna lock myself in the cabin. You should too, just in case. Flint saw the two of us at Caulfield. He doesn’t think I am ballsy enough to do that to our father, so he’s gonna target you.”

“I am wearing a bulletproof vest.” 

Alex snaps out the drunk fuck-all act, looking instantly sobered. “Wait. He shot you?”

Kyle shrugs.

“Jesus christ,” Alex runs his hands down Kyle’s chest, “you okay?”

“You know, the more you do this, the lower your chances of getting laid,”

“You got  _shot_ , Kyle! I care more about your safety. You can stay at the cabin - no one knows I live there.”

“Inviting me to move in with you, Manes?”

“If you aren’t comfortable, I can find another place to stay,” Alex says seriously.

“Chill, I’m joking-” 

“This isn’t a joke! It’s important that you are safe - dad’s incapacitated but my brothers can be a threat too, even if they aren’t as difficult with dad no longer pulling their strings!” Alex’s gaze is intense. His fists are clenched and his knuckles are white. Kyle takes one of Alex’s hands and gently massages it, coaxing his fingers to relax.

“I am going to be fine. Both of us can deal with them together because we are in this together as partners. You and I aren’t defenceless,” Kyle soothes.

Alex breathes out. “We are gonna need a plan to deal with them.”

“And we can discuss it in your cabin.”

“Yea, we should.” Alex stands up. It’s almost like the past twenty minutes of conversation and drunkenness didn’t happen. Now that he is standing, it hits Kyle how good Alex looks. That leather jacket. The tight pants that shows off his thighs and ass. The v-neck shirt that tempts his collarbones.

_Bite him!_

Kyle gulps the remaining of his drink before he follows Alex out.

 

* * *

 

 

Kyle drives them to the cabin. 

“You switch gears really fast,” he comments, as Alex dumps his jacket on the table.

“Had to be in the army. I’m still gonna be mad at you for cockblocking once we are free from the alien nonsense.”

“You do look really good today,” Kyle blurts out. Alex doesn’t catch the flirtation at all. He drops himself at the couch and removes his prosthetic.

“Would have dressed better if I found out dear old pops is almost dead,” Alex stills, and looks at Kyle guiltily, “I’m sorry,”

Kyle joins him at the couch. “Nah it’s fine. He did fucking shoot me.”

“I won’t take it personally if you pulled the plug, though I know you won’t do it.”

Kyle looks up in surprise, “How do you?”

“Because you are a good person. And you live by a good code. I know I am safe with you because you honour that code,” Alex replies easily.

 _Shit_. Kyle realises. He’s in love. With Alex.

“You are a good person too, you know,” Kyle says. His voice is shaky from the epiphany.

“Michael can’t look at me without seeing what my father did to him. And he isn’t wrong. I know what my father is capable of. And I am so afraid that-“ Alex covers his face with his hands.

“You aren’t your father,”

“Mimi says I have the same energy as him, what if I am corrupted like dad and I-“

“Alex, look at me,” Kyle pries Alex’s hands away, replaces them with his own, “you are never going to be father, you know why? Because you love. And people love you. You think you don’t deserve this love, but you do. And it will always be this love that will never make you your father.”

Alex’s eyes are wet. A stray tear falls and trails down his cheek. Kyle wipes it away with his thumb.

Alex kisses him, backs off as soon as he does. “Shit. I’m sorry. I just-“

“It’s ok,” Kyle says, “it’s okay if you just want to use me as a rebound,”

“Are you offering to have sex with me?”

Kyle raises an eyebrow, “Yes?”

Alex pushes him down onto the sofa and straddles him.

Just as Kyle prepares to kiss him properly, Alex whips a gun from behind the cushion and points it at him.

“ _Jesus_!”

“Who are you and what have you done to Kyle?” Alex demands.

“I  _am_  Kyle! I swear!“

“The Kyle I know isn’t interested in guys,” Alex hisses.

In the face of a loaded gun, Kyle is calm. He knows Alex won’t hurt him, knows that this is something only he can fix. He says quietly, surely, “The Kyle you knew in high school, didn’t realise that about himself. The Kyle you knew then was a dick who wanted to be popular and he did the worst thing he could do to his best friend. The Kyle you know now has grown since and found out in college that men are really fun in bed and he has missed out because he was busy being bigoted. He is also very sorry for what he has done and he will aways try to make it up to you.”

Alex lets out the air he has been holding and shoves the gun back into the sofa. Kyle pulls him down and holds him against his chest.

“You weren’t going to shoot me. The safety was still on.”

“I fucked up,” Alex mumbles into his shirt.

“I contributed,” Kyle replies, stroking Alex’s hair, “do you really hide weapons all around the house?”

Alex nods, “I’ll show you around, where they are at.”

“Are you gonna pull out other moves?“

“I don’t want you to have sex with me because you feel sorry for me.”

“I don’t feel sorry for you. I am upset for you. I am also very turned on because you are on top of me and you whipping the gun out did things to my dick. So. Is it a cold shower or -“

“I don’t want you to be a rebound. I actually uh -“

“Uh huh?”

“I do like you. You know? Like more than friends.”

Kyle’s heart soars.

“So do I,” Kyle readily admits, “and we are adults. Adulting means we can have sex with people we find really hot. And we can talk about what we mean to each other too.”

“Okay,” Alex braces himself over Kyle, “I think you are hot, and that you are important to me. If we are having sex it’s not because I’m using you as a rebound. It’s something more.”

Kyle says, “It’s something more for me too. And f-y-i, I wanted to jump you since I saw you at the bar.”

Alex lunges forward. The kiss is intense when both of them reciprocate. Kyle curls the hand in Alex’s hair and he gets soft moans into his mouth in return.

He wants Alex, Kyle realises. Not just when he is sad and angry and there’s alcohol in both their breaths. Not just when they are stuck together by some bizarre family legacies they didn’t choose to have. Kyle wants Alex and he wants Alex to want him back.

Alex rolls his hips down and Kyle gasps. “You are thinking too much,” he shivers when Alex whispers that in his ear, trembles when Alex gently bites the lobe, “focus on me.”

Yes, yes. They will have time to talk about it. Right now he is so turned on it hurts and he wants to make Alex scream his name. Kyle pushes himself up with one hand and guides Alex closer, so that he can sit comfortably on his lap.

“Can I get a real life performance of what you were doing to that glass in the bar?” Kyle asks breathily, after pressing kisses to Alex’s cheeks, the sides of his lips, his neck.

Alex smirks. “I am already gonna.”


End file.
